Smoke rises after an Israeli strike in Hamra, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon, November 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

At least one Israeli airstrike shook the Lebanese capital of Beirut moments after U.S. President Joe Biden said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to ceasefire deal.

At least 24 people have been killed in strikes across Lebanon, according to local authorities, as Israel signalled it aims to keep pummelling Hezbollah before the ceasefire is set to take hold at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday (November 27, 2024). Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens across the country’s north.

An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire would mark the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, in support of the Palestinian militant group. More than a year of fighting in Lebanon escalated into all-out war in September with massive Israeli airstrikes across the country and an Israeli ground invasion of the south.

In Gaza, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the nearly 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.